Mark Cuban Booed Derek Fisher

And called on all the rest of the Mav fans to do the same.

For those who don't know the story, I believe that Fisher requested, and was given, his release from Dallas due to personal reasons, specifically so he could be with his kids and to rehab his knee. His knee was not so bad as, say, Rondo's, it just needed time and PT. Fisher is now with OKC. Not very classy actions by either side, if you ask me. It's hard to feel sorry for an NBA owner and it's also pretty hard to feel sorry for the former President of the Players Union. No wonder so many owners wanted to stick it to the players...

As far as the article's question about whether Cuban, an owner who has a stake in the image of the NBA, crossed the line by booing a specific player in his league I'd point out he's probably more poor from league fines for saying what he honestly thinks than anybody else. If you don't like the refs and bitch publicly about them, then Mark Cuban is your deep-pocketed soul brother. I don't think the league will fine him for this, but if they do it won't matter any more to him than the $50k fine they hit him with in January for twitting about the refs.

"Im sorry NBA fans. Ive tried for 13 years to fix the officiating in this league and I have failed miserably. Any Suggestions ? I need help."

In fact, Cuban has paid over $2M in fines since 2000.


http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/mark-cuban-booed-derek-fisher-return-dallas-encouraged-095832076--nba.html


The Dallas Mavericks are not particularly big fans of Derek Fisher these days. In December, owner Mark Cuban agreed to release Fisher following a short stint with the club so that he could rehabilitate his injured knee and focus on a major NBPA power struggle — it was in many ways a personal favor. Then, as soon as Fisher dealt with those situations, he signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder without giving the Mavericks any advance warning or the chance to bring him back. According to reports, Cuban felt aggrieved at the personal slight, for understandable reasons.

On Sunday, Fisher returned to Dallas for the first time as a member of the Thunder. Instead of voicing his opinions in private, Cuban made them very well known and encouraged fans to do the same. From Tim MacMahon for ESPNDallas.com:


"I'll just boo him like hopefully everybody else," Cuban said before the game.

Mavericks fans were on board, too. They booed Fisher when he entered the game with 1:45 left. They then cheered loudly 10 seconds later when the reserve guard was called for his first foul in Oklahoma City's eventual 107-101 win.

After Fisher signed with the Thunder, Cuban reacted with sarcasm, mockingly saying that Fisher's kids had grown up a lot in 65 days and that it was much easier to fly in and out of Oklahoma City than Dallas. On Sunday night, Cuban directly questioned Fisher's integrity. "I took the bait," Cuban said.

Cuban said he was particularly perturbed by Fisher's decision to join a contender after quitting on the Mavs because the five-time NBA champion repeatedly reached out to Cuban when Fisher was unemployed at the beginning of the season. He said he offered Fisher personal advice and fell for the point guard's pitch, prompting the Mavs to sign him.

"My personality is to try to help somebody, particularly somebody that I thought one thing about, even if it didn't turn out to be that way," Cuban said. "So I was just trying to be nice and help. Usually when you help somebody, you expect at least some semblance of loyalty back. When you don't get it, then it's more disappointing.

"With his history, I shouldn't have been surprised what happened."

Cuban's "history" comment refers to the fact that Fisher requested and received his release two previous times in the past six years, although those incidents were not particularly controversial.

The first came in 2007, after his baby daughter was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer, when Fisher asked to have his contract with the Utah Jazz (and its remaining $8 million) nullified so that he could become a free agent and sign with a team in a city with the appropriate medical specialists. While he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers that summer and earned a trip to the NBA Finals the following June, Fisher chose L.A. at a time when the franchise when Kobe Bryant had demanded a trade and Pau Gasol had yet to suit up in purple and gold. The second buyout occurred at the 2012 trade deadline when Fisher was dealt from the Lakers to the Houston Rockets, but there's no indication that Daryl Morey and Co. were particularly upset to see him sign up with the Thunder.

Yet, even if Cuban's take on Fisher's history is uncharitable, he has very good reasons for being upset. As our Kelly Dwyer noted in Feburary, the Mavericks did Fisher a favor when they released him, and it's natural to think that act earned them a heads-up if and when he decided to return to the NBA. On top of that, Fisher has noted that he wants to usher in a new era of openness and transparency in his role as NBPA president, and this is most certainly not an example of practicing what he has preached.

It can be unnerving any time an NBA owner claims disloyalty on the part of an employee; after all, these are the same people who regularly release players with little warning. However, a contradiction doesn't change the reasonable belief that business dealings should contain a modicum of human decency, no matter how cutthroat an industry tends to be.

This is also not the first time that Cuban has expressed distaste at a player failing to apprise the team of a decision before signing with a competitor — last summer, Cuban refused to consider retiring Jason Kidd's jersey after the way he bolted for the New York Knicks. There's a pattern here, which means it's possible that Cuban makes it clear to his employees that he expects a certain level of respect. He deserves it, too, because he signs the checks and typically puts players in a position to succeed. He seems to be a good boss.

Nevertheless, it's worth considering if Cuban crossed the line by encouraging fans to boo an opposing player. His personal booing isn't a big surprise — Cuban has always been more like a fan than an owner in his courtside seats.

Yet that passion doesn't change the fact that he's an owner, and therefore a member of a group with an obligation to look out for the good of the NBA as an organization. Telling fans to get as upset as possible at a player can be seen as its own breach of professionalism, one that could mark the Mavericks out as a team (and, by slippery-slope extension, the NBA as an organization) that turns on its players as soon as they leave town. That's a dangerous cognitive leap to make, but it's not as if the league isn't incredibly protective of its image. Why do you think David Stern fines Cuban any time he criticizes the referees? Is it because he's factually incorrect, or because it makes the NBA look bad?

I don't mean to suggest that Cuban's anger towards Fisher is fundamentally misguided — I actually think it's pretty darn principled. But the dilemma here goes well beyond an issue of basic kindness. The NBA relies on qualities like sportsmanship, passion, and various other principles and emotions to drive and maintain interest in its product. Yet, as a gigantic corporation with global reach, it ultimately can't let those ideals infringe upon its ability to 1) survive and 2) make money.

It's possible to argue that Cuban was wrong simply because he encouraged enmity towards a fellow competitor — two negatives don't add up to a positive. However, if the argument is that Cuban went too far in his role as an owner, it's worth wondering if he really did something truly wrong in calling out Fisher or just broke with decorum. Your answer will probably depend on what you consider the true interests of the NBA to be.


bob


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I like Mark Cuban, hes the everyman in my book and wish more owners would call out Stern, I know if I was in his position I would do the same thing. Stern has his favorites, we know who they are and they always get their way....Derek Fisher gets away with all this crap, all for his sick son, what a bunch of bullshit/crap, shame on him always using his sons sickness to get what he wants, guy is a fockin selfish lowlife to use his son like this....IMHO

I always like a guy who is not afraid to speak his mind.. Even if I don't agree with him, Cuban is my kinda guy in that regard, a standup guy. I don't think he went too far as a owner- Sterns cronies have done a lot worse to harm the leagues rep than Cuban has..

Besides, Cuban more so than a lot of owners is also a fan... Fans should be allowed to boo whoever they want.

And the players association... Somewhere Hoffa us looking upon that organization and thinking.. Ya"ll need some pointers here guys..

For some reason, the NBA holds team owners and management to a higher standard while watching a game than the average fan. Does anyone remember when Danny Ainge was watching a game (maybe sitting with Wyc) and he was sitting at the end of the court, under the basket?

When a player from the other team was shooting a free throw, Danny threw a towel or a tee-shirt up in the air. He got fined for that. That was nothing compared to what fans do during free throws, but Danny gets fined?

Of course, Owners, GM's and Coaches have a higher standard to live up to than fans do while they are at games. This is true for the NBA, College and HS Basketball. Would you ever expect to see a HS coach or a Principal who is attending a game act like one of the fans does?

Cuban is mostly fined for what he says about the referees.
The same was true for Phil Jackson, who was regularly fined by the league.

Mark is right about Derek Fisher. It is not right what Derek did this year.
I can give Derek a pass when he wanted to leave Utah because of his childs treatment and even last year when he asked to be released from Houston. Houston was a lottery team didn't really want him anyway, they wanted the 1st round pick they received from the Lakers. This year Derek was wrong to ask to be released from Dallas then to come back the same season with OKC.

Mark Cuban can do what he wants. He was a personal friend of the late and great Larry Hagman and appeared on, "Dallas." He is a class act as was Larry Hagman, the greatest actor in evening continuing drama, Larry Hagman was J.R. Ewing!

MD!